JULY 24, 1909.
THE SPLI
AFTER more than a week of anxious waiting, the Channel
flight has been attempted and lost. But what a splendid
failure Mr. Latham made of his try. Everyone regrets
that the precise task which he set out to accomplish is
not achieved, and everyone sympathises with such a
genuine sportsman in his misfortune. But after all is
said and done, has not Mr. Latham's successful failure
taught even more than would have been available from an
uneventful success? Had he flown from Sangatte to
Dover as had been hoped, and as he may yet do with the
fates more favourable to his project, there would still
have been that plaintive cry wailing beneath the general
thunder of applause "Yes, but whatever would have
happened had he fallen in the sea ? "
It might have been years before anyone would have
been found to come forward in willingness to demonstrate
an answer to this question, for even apart from personal
risk there is ever the prospect of losing a costly machine,
and where logic fails to influence via the head, it is
generally potent enough through the pocket. The
•chance which brought Mr. Latham down in mid-Channel,
therefore, should, seeing that it did him no harm, be
regarded from the standpoint of the old adage that " it's
an ill wind that blows nobody good."
The question of being able to make a safe descent as
far as the surface of the water, in the event of a mishap,
was never really in doubt, since all aviators are agreed
that, given sufficient height, it it practically always within
the bounds of possibility to glide in the end even if the
equilibrium of the machine has been temporarily upset
in the beginning ; that is, of course, always assuming that
the pilot is a cool hand, and Mr. Latham is that and a
good deal more. Taking the water at gliding speed—
which by the way is at least that of the normal speed of
flight—is an altogether different matter, and needed some
such practical evidence as Mr. Latham gave on Monday,
in order to supply any sort of clue as to what might be
reasonably expected in a similary emergency. As to
what might happen after the machine had settled on the
water, there was also very considerable doubt, although
we believe that Mr. Latham himself never expected
anything else but that his flyer would float. There
remained only one other point, and that was as to how
far the pilot might hope to save himself should the
machine sink, and this last we are exceedingly pleased
Mr. Latham did not have to prove; he had done
quite enough for one morning's work, and it was after all
the least the fates could have done for him after he had
braved their frown in such a sporting manner, to give
him at the end the chance to smoke a cigarette in peace.
It is, of course, quite impossible to overrate the
importance of the personal factor in an emergency of the
kind which befell Mr. Latham. He was on the point of
taking a photograph of his convoy, the torpedo destroyer
" Harpon," as it steamed furiously through the waters
nearly a thousand feet below, when he first heard his
engine mis-fire. If in the whole gamut of human
sensations there is anything more likely to bring one's
heart into one's mouth than the sudden mis-firing of
one's engine while aboard a flyer a thousand feet above
the sea, we should like to know of it; it should come very
near to paralysing the nerve centres, we should imagine.
" Instantly I gave up any idea of photography " is Mr.
Latham's first remark in commenting upon the incident.
Well, it needs a little getting used to, to appreciate the
•exact frame of mind which will permit of an interest in
snapshots simultaneously with the necessity of paying
attention to flight, so that perhaps after all it is only in
keeping with the situation that Mr. Latham should have
found it natural to explain that he did not finish taking
the picture before he attended to anything else. In fact,
one may even be permitted to regret, under the circum-
stances, that the photograph was not taken ; it would
have been such an extraordinarily interesting momento of
the occasion.
" I examined all the electrical connections that were
within my reach," continues Mr. Latham in the narrative
he wrote for the Daily Mail. Could anything possibly
give greater confidence in the future of the flyer than this
simple statement? Here is a man who has such con-
fidence in his machine that he is able, at critical moments
like this, to set about trying to cure ignition troubles,
forsooth, in mid-air. We can almost imagine that it
would have needed no more than the slightest excuse for
Mr. Latham to have set about and changed an ignition
plug. But, as he explains, " I could hear that more than
one of the eight cylinders were mis-firing." Affected by
the recollection of the difficulty, Mr. Latham gives way
at last to his first signs of feeling. " It was maddening,
but I was helpless. Never before had the engine played
me such a trick after so short a flight." Like all good
sportsmen, Mr. Latham accepted the inevitable, but with
the firm intention of making the best of that, too, and
having "calculated that the torpedo boat destroyer was
about a mile away " he glided down to the surface of the
water, for, as he succinctly remarks, " There was nothing
else to be done."
Describing his descent, Mr. Latham says, " I came
down not in a series of short glides, but in one clean
straight downward slope. My speed at the moment of
impact was about 40 or 45 miles an hour. The machine
was under perfect control during ascent; instead of diving
into the sea at an angle I skimmed down so that I was
able to make contact with the sea with the aeroplane
practically in a horizontal position. It settled on the
water and floated like a cork. I swung my feet up on
to a cross bar to prevent them from getting wet. Then
I took out my cigarette case, lit a cigarette, and waited
for the torpedo destroyer to come up." Although
Mr. Latham does not actually make the remark, we
imagine it was merely an omission that he did not
conclude the above sentence with his former delightful
platitude, " There was nothing else to be done."
The gliding descent, the taking of the water in a
horizontal attitude at a speed of 40 miles an hour, and
the subsequent bouyancy of the Antoinette flyer, are all
matters of the greatest possible importance, less, perhaps,
on account of any immediate and direct application than
because of their unique character. No man wants to lose
his life in flying if he can help it, and even the best of
swimmers, and we believe Mr. Latham is a master of this
accomplishment, generally dislike getting wet within
their clothes.
.But there are bound to be many enthusiasts who aspire
to the Channel crossing, and it is going to make all the
difference in the world what machine becomes popular
for this little journey, as to which affords the greatest
security in the event of mishap. Even the best regulated
of engines are apt to misfire, and if they follow this up
by stopping off work altogether, as Mr. Latham's motor
did, there is, as Mr. Latham expresses it, nothing else to
be done save to descend upon the water with what ease
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